October: The Story of the Russian Revolution by China Miéville
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The events of Saint Petersburg, 1917 are among the most fascinating in history. The largest and most oppressive monarchical empire in the world was over thrown by something that proved to be much, much worse. What makes this book interesting is that it was written by someone who can't quite bring himself to conced that last point.

I never heard of China Mieville before finding the handsome cover of this book. He is a gifted and confident writer who strikes the right balance between procedural detail and human drama. I have read many books on this subject, but Mievell made the material seem fresh.

Mievell concedses off the bat that he is not a neutral observer of these events. A quick Google search confirmed tha the is, even in the year of our Lord 2019, a committed Marxist. His affection for Lenin is not subtle. And it takes a little mental energy to periodically remember that the author believes in the economic equivalent of Scientology. But the story drives forward and builds to the glorious moment when a ramshackle band of second rate political theorists take over land spanning 11 time zones.

At times I was deeply annoyed by his ability to bend facts away from Lenin's faults. He seems to genuinely believe that Lenin was a pure soul with only the best intentions. It borders on the embarassing at times, but I may have read to many right-wing accounts of these same events.

In the epilogue, Mievelle does acknowledge the profound problems that revealed themselves in the decade after the October Revolution. But his thesis seems to be that those events were not an inevitible consequnce of Bolshevism. On that, I must strongly disagree. But this book is a quick read and the style is entertaining.

I will mention one annoying style clithc-Mievell is fond of using obscure words for commonly used concepts. Several times he uses a word that I've never head and then immediately saves the reader a Google by defining it. When a writer feels that is necessary, he's just showing off his Scrabble abilities. Here's a related example. In the epiloque he describes the display of Lenin's corpse as "A gnarled and ghastly relic, recieving obeisance from its catafalque.

And here, let me Google that for you. Catafalque: A decorated wooden framework supporting the coffin of a distinguished person during a funeral or while lying in state. Obeisance: deferential respect.







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Thoughts on the Game of Thrones Finale

Note: this is published about 90 minutes before the Game of Thrones Series Finale. It is full of spoliers throug the first 5 episodes of season 8. I've also read the firs two books, which might inform my commentary. 


Reaction to the final season of Game of Thrones has been very negative. As I write this, there is just one episode left and no one seems to think the show can stick the landing. There are just too many loose threads to tie up and we already know that certain key characters will have unsatisfying story endings.

When this truncated seasson began, I started watching the old episodes. It's been a bittersweet process. The writing and promise of the first two seasons really make season eight look worse.

There are at least three levels on which to appreciate GOT.  Ian McShane famously called GOT "A show about tits and dragons."  Surely the tits and the dragons brough in a lot of casual viewers. Re-watching the first two season reminded me of how shameless the "sexpostion" was in the early goings. As the show progressed, the show (and most of its audience) matured and there was less need for exploitive titalation. A slightly deeper reading of the story is that it's a story about a war. The plot is set in motion by a disput over who the rightful monarch is. And the second season starts with the War of 5 Kings. But another glaring thing about the rewatch of those episodes is how little combat is shown. When Tyrion heads off to battle for the first time, he is knocked out by accident and we learn the result, with him, after he comes to, hours after the battle. We are told that Rob Stark wins several battles against the Lannisters, but we only see glimpses of it. The show's budget and popularity eventually demanded more warfare, and we got that in a stone classic of an episode two years ago-The Battle of the Bastards. The show has twice tried to match the quality and drama of that hour this season and it failed both times.

For me, the show has always been about politics. George R.R. Martin created something truly ambititous-an entire mythology and history that reminds us of midieval Europe but inhabited by characters that are three dimensional, complicated and most of all, smart. Consider how the Starks and Lannisters can each give credulous narratives of how the war started. The Starks accused Tyrion of trying to kill Bran, but he didn't. Ned Stark assumed that Cersei killed John Arryn, whose death put in motion the action of the very first episode. But he was actually killed by his wife, Lysa, the sister of Katlyn Stark.  The Starks of course would point out that Joffrey was a bastard and that their lord was killed for doing nothing more than speaking the truth. As with any great war, both sides have a narative that can become the officially history, if only they win.

Ah yes, winning. The show's title tells us this a game. From the jump, we have been rooting for team Stark and hoping that one of them winds up on the Iron Throne. I think we'll probably get that much closure tonight, although I'm not sure how the lesser story lines will end up.

Part of me wants the finale to just be a total fuck it episode. Instead of resolving the question of who gets the Iron Throne and what is to be done with Daeny now that she is crazy, we could open with a title card that says "Ten Years Later....In High Garden." Then Bronn can walk out, talking directly to the camera, "Oh hi there! I'm so glad you stopped by. Tonight we are celebrating my first decade as lord of High Garden with some old friends. You never know who might stop by."  [Off camera, a large dog barks.Cut to Tormund and Wolf walking toward the castle entrance.]

But I doubt that will happen. We will probably get a conventional resolution of the big issues. I tend to think that Danerys will die, but I'm not sure how. The genius of this show was how it emphasized the importance of alliances and family. Daeny has no relatives and almost no friends. Her nephew/ lover is not goin to be able to forgive what she did last week. So she's got to go. And her dragon too. I think the best resolution might be to have her commit suicide, but I don't think they have set that up at all.

So I will watch and learn.  I feel now that the show was about three sets of siblings and how each of those eleven characters have made their way through the world. I tend to do a lot of ranking on this website, so I'll close by ranking these 11 characters and give some thoughts on the ending they either got, or the ending I think they deserve to get tonight.

1. Tyrion Lannister. No one played the game better than him, rising from family outcast all the way to The Acting Hand of the King, and later the Hand of a Queen. Along the way he killed his father, had his heart broken and became cellibate for reasons that don't really make sense. Last week he betrayed Cersei in order to hopefully avert a bloodbath and hopefully spare the life of his unborn niece or nephew. Danerys will not let that stand. But dying for that sin is as fitting an ending as any I can think of.

2. Cersei Lannister. Her evolution from drunken cuckold (and cuckolder) to reigning monarch of the seven kingdoms was believable every step of the way.  And then last week she watched her capital burn, helplessly, only to die in the basement of her palace. I read a lot of negative comments about how she deserved a more dramatic death than to be killed by falling debris, but it was believable to me. She put this war in motion with her ambition and the whole thing collapsed on her head.

3. Sansa Stark.  It is painfully obvious that she is the most qualified monarch left on the board.The saddest thing on this show is that Sansa is going to go through eight seasons without being loved by a man. She was brutalized by Joffrey's henchman and raped by Ramsey Bolton (nee Snow). If anyone has earned a happy ending, it is Sansa Stark. She should either take the Iron Throne, serve as Jon's hand or declare the North Independent and let Brienne to commander her forces against any southern opposition.

4. Arya Stark.  My favorite part of last week's episode was when Arya left the Red Keep. The Hound was right-she deserves a live that is about something other than revenge.  Rewatching season two really made me appreciate how good Maisie Williams was even as a girl. Her scenes as Tywin Lannister's cup bearer are among the best of the whole series. I know some people will cringe if she rides off to Storm's End and marries Gendry, but she deserves a life like that. Gendry is a good guy and they have been through some shit together. Gendry also has no clue how to run an estate. Arya can make the Baratheons the new Tyrells-a secret matriarchy of enormous wealth.

5. Jaime Lannister.  Like the above mentioned characters, Jaime goes through an exraordinary evolution in eight seasons.The Kingslayer delayed the destruction of King's Landing by about 20 years but history will just remember him as the guy who impregnated his sister four times. I think he deserved a better death than the one he got, but it's also true that his love of Cersei was the one thing he couldn't ever overcome.

6. Jon Snow.  I didn't start watching this show until after the Red Wedding. But the scene in the second episode where Ned and Jon part ways hooked me for good.  "You are a Stark. You don't have my name but you do have my blood."  Something about that line reminded me of Obi Won telling Luke that Darth Vader killed his father. He was telling the truth, but not the whole truth.  The discovery of that truth will always be one of the great story lines in television history. BUT.....as a character? He's not very complicated. I know we're supposed to get one heroe to root for even if he's dull, but I wish the show runners had allowed Jon to be something other than a do-gooder once in awhile.

7. Rob Stark.  Dave and Dan are getting a lot of shit for this season, but let's not forget that they did a great job with the first three seasons of the show. Their best trick was making viewers believe that The Young Wolf was goin to win the day. In the books Rob Stark doesn't even get a single chapter from his perspective. But Dave and Dan imbued him with some humanity and Richard Madden's chemisty with Oona Chaplin really sold that story line.

8, Bran Stark. The low-key way everyone puts up with this weirdo has made me laugh multiple times in season eight. His telling Euron that he's a good man was cringe worthy but his other scenes have been good. And he was so charming before becoming the Three Eyed Raven.

9. Danerys Targaryen. She might just end up on that Iron Throne that she thinks she's entitled to before the night is over. But as, I said above, her character always felt peripheral to me. Emilia Clarke was not ready for this role when she was cast. It's worth noting that she is supposed to be 14 years old when the action begins, but HBO decided to cast an older actress for the very principled reason that they wanted to show off her breasts, a lot.  Emilia's acting got better as the show went on, but she never sold me on being the breaker of chains and the writing this season did not properly set up her heel turn last week. (There's plenty of foreshadowing of it in the earlier seasons, but they mostly abandoned that as she became an obvious symbol of female strength and human virtue.)

10. Rickon Stark.  Adorable child actor who only got two memorable moments-naming his wolf Shaggy Dog and being killed by an arrow because he didn't run in a zig-zag pattern. That is a very Stark death.

11. Viserys Targaryen. The actor was fine in this part but the character was just a plot device. The most interesting thing about that is the fact that he was the rightful owner of the Iron Throne. And look at what good it did him. Because the show is about politics, not legal niceties.  (Good luck Jon!)